THE days of the large petrol-engined limos may be numbered but over the last 20 years or so we have seen some beauties.

One such is the BMW 7-Series Saloon which in its heyday in the late 2000s presented the market with the astonishing 750i and 760i with V8 and V12 engines respectively.

For me this model really got into its stride in the early 1980s when luxury options included integrated phone and fax, a wine cooler, double glazing and a system that automatically increased spring pressure on windscreen wipers to keep them firmly against the glass at motorway speeds

A later version of the car created much controversy, due to complications over its iDrive information system, but this version, the E65, broke records to become the best-selling 

But back to the real beast of the pack, the V12 which I drove at a weekend car event in France in the late 1980s.

This featured a 6.0-litre smooth-as-silk-V12 under the bonnet and turned out a mind-blowing 445bhp.

With speed limited to 155mph it could rocket to 62mph in 5.5 seconds which was then amazing for such a big car.

If you were lucky you might just get a tad more than 20mpg but in those days behind the wheel of such a legend, mpg was not the foremost worry. I was more bothered by keeping an eye on the speedometer and not getting trapped by a Gendarme.

This was the car that took on luxury models from Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz head on and in some ways showed them how it was done.

If you were worried by the thirst there were always six and eight cylinder petrol versions and a couple of six and V8 diesels, but they were never quite the same as the V12, which for all its showy complexity and modern technology had something of the feel of the cars of a more golden age.

In more modern times, the range features the 760Li  V12 which is even more powerful and has been celebrated by a 25 years of 7 Series V12s special edition.

The 760Li twelve-cylinder petrol engine, the fifth generation of BMW

It is truly a modern classic.